"I figured something along those lines too, but as it turns out, he was really reasonable about it.", Pseudo says, putting it back.
"As soon as I see Kumatora, Duster or Claus again, I'll return the Egg of Light to them, and they can take it with them to their world."
Tahn raises an eyebrow.
"... sure, as long as you take my advice seriously too if I give you any. But before that, there is one thing I need to get off of my chest..."
"If you're some mythical god, why do you look like a rockstar?"
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay."Reyna. Monster hunter for hire... and for fun." She points at herself. "You got a big nasty lizard needs swatting, I'm your gal... unless you're fine with not making a profit off getting rid of it."
"Anyway, nice to meetcha, Varik."
Edited by KiriK on Apr 14th 2020 at 6:31:15 AM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.""Hey, I'm always about making a profit. Nothing in the world's for free.", Varik says.
"Nice to meet you too."
Varik then realizes that, lately, he's been running into people he, surprisingly, doesn't have that much trouble getting along with. Whether that's a sign for something good, or the world waiting to kick him in the balls as soon as it pulls the rug out under him, he'd have to see.
Edited by DevilPsyco on Apr 14th 2020 at 1:39:18 PM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay."Good idea. The sooner that thing is out of here, the better," Wanda replies.
"Huh... that guy's just full of surprises, isn't he?" Pietro muses.
Sighing, Loki rolls his eyes.
"Why do you children insist on asking me that Odin-damned question? Nevertheless, consider your terms agreed to."
Edited by IchigoMontoya on Apr 14th 2020 at 4:45:20 AM
"If you're so profit-oriented..." Reyna looks around.
"There are some small-fry monsters that keep wandering around and making a mess of things. Four-legged lizard beasts. They're easy pickings, but I can pay you in money, weapons, food and/or drink if you'll take care of them for me so they don't get in the way of my fights with the bigger threats."
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Varik narrows his eyes thoughtfully.
"How 'small-fry' we talkin', and how big a reward we talkin'? I've got plenty of money, so I'll be going for drinks, but how much are you offering?"
"Indeed he is. Both he and his boss, who told me where to find him, are intriguing."
"Granted, said boss just oozed evil off of her vibe and there's no way I'd ever even consider letting her in here, but with both Botar's and Ninten's teleportation powers, we'd have been able to escape from any trap, which is why I chose to follow her instructions."
Tahn actually appears surprised at Loki's initial reaction, then scratches his cheek while blinking.
"... you get asked that a lot?"
He then looks at the hall ahead.
"Y'know what, let's drop the useless questions, or we'll still be here in an hour from now. We gotta focus on getting through here. I hope you're at least somewhat experienced with this line of work. If this is your first time, I'll have a lot of explaining to do.", he says, talking like he's the expert on this sort of thing.
... then again, considering his profession, he kind of is.
Then his eyes narrow, and the boy looks serious. He takes a few steps ahead, and Loki may be surprised at the complete lack of sound his footsteps make, despite the fact that his feet are hitting the ground.
This basically means that nobody would ever be able to hear him coming.
Tahn then puts himself against a wall and motions for Loki to do the same, grinning with confidence, despite how creepy and eerie the hallways are. He starts to slowly walk forward while keeping his back against the wall, occasionally glancing behind Loki just in case any Vahki appear from that side.
Hidden with a Purpose (Endless Hallway (Enoch ?)- OFF)
Edited by DevilPsyco on Apr 14th 2020 at 1:56:57 PM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay."Let's just put it this way." Reyna picks up her Insect Glaive and ponders.
"I'd estimate a single one of them is smaller than you, and they're easily dispatched with weapons alone... when that's the only thing you have to worry about. Where they're real bastards is when they swoop in while you're fighting something much bigger and get your attention away until the big thing clobbers you."
She gestures with one hand to try and convey what she means. "Like, say, a Wulg wrapping around you and allowing a Beotodus to slam its entire giant-sharq-monster body into you. But the only monsters that big and menacing are the ones I've been taking care of. As for the reward, well... it depends on whether you want a lot of one thing that I offered, or a bit of everything. Or a lot of everything, but I'll expect you to do an equivalent amount of work for that."
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.""Oh good, I was afraid we'd start running out of blatantly obvious bad guys to worry about," Pietro remarks.
"So, now that we don't have to worry about the egg anymore, is there anything else we should know about?" Wanda asks.
"Rest assured, I've done more than my fair share of sneaking and infiltrating."
Loki follows in Tahn's example, keeping an eye out for any potential Vahki as he does so.
Varik crosses his arms.
"I guess that's acceptable, I can handle that. Just point me towards what I need to kill."
"Not to my knowledge.", Pseudo says. "... but just to be certain, you've heard of the Set incident, right?"
Tahn appears content that Loki seems to know what he's doing. Then he suddenly stops and motions for Loki to do the same, despite a complete lack of sound that'd indicate a Vahki is nearby.
He then gets on one knee and puts his hand on the ground. He then does some signs with his free hand that Loki won't have any idea what they mean... which Tahn realizes a moment later, getting back up and whispering to him.
"I feel vibrations. Can Vahki float? If so, one of them might be right behind the next corner."
While Loki wouldn't have been told a lot about the Vahki, he should figure it's not that far-fetched to consider they might be able to, considering that, even by the Bionicle's standards, they are full-on robots. So they might have a way to hover above the ground, which'd give off vibrations.
Edited by DevilPsyco on Apr 14th 2020 at 2:15:12 PM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Reyna whistles, and a Mernos
wearing a harness swoops down, landing in front of Varik.
She just gestures to its special gear. "This is your ride..."
She takes her Scoutfly lantern off her belt and offers it to him. "... And this'll make sure you find their trail."
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Pietro and Wanda briefly exchange looks, then nod.
"Yeah, Thor told us all about it."
"I honestly surprised that you, Narktus and Cyber didn't have any plans for in case he betrayed you. As Thor said before, he doesn't even bother trying to hide the fact that he's a god of evil."
Loki stops dead in his tracks.
"Admittedly, I don't know everything about these Vahki, but it wouldn't be too far-fetched to assume that they can float. Should I summon an illusion to distract them, or do you already have a plan?"
"That's fly.", he says as he grabs the lantern, grinning as he then approaches it... then tries to get onto its back for a moment.
While both Reyna and the Mernos will probably be confused, Varik notices the latch it has on its ankle and pauses, still in the right pose to try climbing up on it.
"..."
He turns his head to look at Reyna as he gets off.
"Wait, I have to grab it by its ankles!?", he asks, taken aback.
"I did consider the possibility. What I did not consider was that, if he were to do it, he'd have done it this soon.", Pseudo says. "Which is a critical error on my part, and Cyber's as well. He went out there to fight, and apparently lost one of his lower legs. Though he's having it healed. How, I have no idea."
"You can make illusions? ... Uh, alright, let's go with that.", Tahn says.
Edited by DevilPsyco on Apr 14th 2020 at 2:41:35 PM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Reyna scratches her head. The Mernos squawks and flaps its wings in a panic, though it doesn't fly away.
"Uh... yeah. It can't support your weight from above, sorry. Its legs are much stronger than they seem. And don't worry, you won't go too far from here."
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Varik looks unamused for a moment.
"Ugh, fine. But if my arms hurt enough to hinder my performance, I want an extra reward."
He then turns to the Mernos, puts his hand on its wing and closes his eyes. Only a few seconds later, the Mernos should become fully calm again.
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.The Mernos's eyes glow for a moment as Varik does that, but it does settle down.
Reyna appears troubled. This reminds her all too much of the Leshen... but Varik isn't a dangerously territorial tree-monster with an army of mind-controlled subjects, so she ultimately figures it's fine.
Edited by KiriK on Apr 14th 2020 at 7:38:54 AM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."The Mernos flaps its wings and takes flight, carrying Varik off to another sector of the Secluded Valley, a bit lower than where he just was but not nearly as low as where Reyna was fighting the Dark Dragon.
He comes upon a place that resembles its own miniature ecosystem - one-fourth desert, one-fourth forest, one-fourth vivid aboveground coral reef, and one-fourth rotting hellhole blanketed by an effluvial miasma so thick it causes physical damage to breathe in. The Mernos drops him off in the forest region, but the Scoutflies form a trail pointing him towards the coral region.
—
Reyna sees off Varik... and then the ground rumbles.
"Oh, excellent timing...!"
Edited by KiriK on Apr 14th 2020 at 7:50:40 AM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Varik is taken by surprise at first, but is extremely grateful that he was able to keep his composure enough to not let out an extremely girly shriek.
When they arrive at the other sector, he lets go, stretching his arms a little for good measure. Can't risk getting cramps in the middle of a fight.
As he looks around, he scowls at the sighs of the hellish region.
"She can offer me whatever she wants, but I am not going in that part."
He then looks at the Scoutflies and looks calmer.
"Luckily it seems the beasts I'm chasing know better too.", he says as he starts walking.
"I doubt he'd be willing to go that far. I'm not going out there either, so I can't hold it against him. I would be destroyed easily."
He looks troubled.
"And unlike back in my villainous days, I don't have spare bodies to fall back on if I'm destroyed. So you see why I'm not too eager to take such a risk."
The illusion walks into the hallway beyond the corner, and a sudden metallic clunk tells them that a hovering Vahki has now resorted to walking.
Tahn grins victoriously... until the Vahki makes an alarm go off, confusing him.
Before they can even question anything, a golden blur appears before them for a second, after which they'll find themselves in a completely different hallway.
"... w-wait, huh? Did we lose?", Tahn asks, completely out of the loop. Botar then appears next to them.
"The Cyber Angels would pull the alarm if they saw an unknown enemy walk past. So the Vahki will naturally do the same."
"Wai-hold on a minute, you never told us that part!", Tahn tries calling Botar out.
"No. Because I thought it would be obvious."
Tahn pauses, then shuts his trap.
"Illusions are a fair strategy. But know which ones to use.", Botar says before disappearing again. Tahn sighs.
"Damnit, so we would've been totally dead if this had been the real thing. Maybe robo-boy's overly careful preparations have some merit to them after all."
He then looks back at Loki.
"Though I guess this is a good opportunity to ask this, 'cause I didn't think about this before I realized you're not going to understand the signs I'm familiar with. How used are you to telepathy? If you're pretty used to it, then I'll talk to you that way instead of through whispering."
He looks back into the hallway.
"Because if they're going to be this strict about what we can and can't do, it wouldn't surprise me if those robots had enhanced hearing or something."
Edited by DevilPsyco on Apr 14th 2020 at 3:10:46 PM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.A certain gray wyvern descends, stopping in the air in front of Reyna. "My end... is a lie. My demise... was a setback. I am Al-du-in, the Devourer of Worlds!"
"Oh, hey, I think my pals told me about you! You're a mouthy one!" Reyna remarks with a laugh, seemingly confusing Alduin. She then turns completely dead-serious.
"I hate the mouthy ones." Reyna Clutch Claws up to Alduin's head, smacks him around to force him to turn towards a cliff face, shoves her Slinger into his face, and sends the World-Eater crashing headfirst into the wall with a Flinch Shot, burying him under a pile of boulders.
"Devour that, big shot."
A moment or two later, Alduin roars and flings the boulders off of himself, sending Reyna sliding back with the wind pressure.
"If only..." The hunter sighs and brandishes her Insect Glaive, an aura of glowing red bursting from her armor. "Let's dance."
Hero's Testament (Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate) - Monster Hunting Music Collection
Alduin stomps forward and lunges to bite Reyna, but she pole-vaults up over it and slashes him across the back as she falls. Red-and-black sparks of Dragon element fly into the air from the wound.
"What manner of sorcery... is this?" exclaims a genuinely hurt and surprised Firstborn of Akatosh.
"Since I know you can understand me, I'll just give you this one warning. Go find somewhere else to roost, or I'll reinvent the definition of pain on your pompous ass."
—
Meanwhile, in Varik's much-less-exciting adventure...
Eventually, the Scoutfly trail turns red and returns to the lantern - an indicator that hostile monsters are afoot.
It's a group of Shamos
and Girros,
which appear to be in the middle of a stand-off against each other right now...
"Don't worry, man, I'm not saying you should've personally gone out there and picked a fight with someone like Set."
"So, aside from the Egg and Set, is there anything else should we know about?"
Once he's had a moment to process everything that had just happened, Loki answers Tahn with a nod.
"My brother is friends with someone who can communicate telepathically, so..."
Edited by IchigoMontoya on Apr 15th 2020 at 2:29:28 AM
Mero was relaxing back in his home, just sitting on a chair reading books. When the others came back, luckily, there were no monsters waiting for them, but Mero saw them, and he walked to them.
"Hey guys! you're finally back. What were you doing while you were gone? Nothing much happened here."
I'm finally a big boy!

"Huh... sounds like things went way better than I thought they would," Pietro says.
"Pietro was certain that you'd have to either fight this Riku, or be forced to trade something important in exchange for the egg," Wanda clarifies.
"Alright... don't try to undermine my efforts or deliberately get on my nerves, and I'm certain that we'll get along perfectly fine," Loki simply says. "Understand?"